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Post by NWTHabsFan on Aug 31, 2024 11:27:49 GMT -5
Owen Beck having a blast with some hardware.
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Post by seventeen on Aug 31, 2024 12:54:34 GMT -5
Our two future 3rd liners. Could be quite the battle. Kapanen isn't flashy in the slightest but I've sure seen a lot of deflection goals, and as Patrik Bexell says, close to the net, quick release. Sounds a fair bit like Beck.
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Post by seventeen on Sept 1, 2024 0:14:06 GMT -5
Grant McCagg, who some of us despise (not me, because it feels like he's grown up), is moving from Recrutes, which is a subscription service, to The SICK group, joining Tony Marinaro and his articles will now be free and available to one and all. I actually like a lot of McCagg's takes lately and he has been bang on regarding a few people and where they'd be drafted. He thought Sennecke would go top 5 and he did, though many others felt otherwise. Just a plug for him as thanks for much of his feedback, which I enjoy.
Now, back to hockey. McCagg watched Demidov's final U23 game vs SKA several times and also Reinbacher's play with Austria in the Olympic qualifying for Austria. They beat Slovenia 2-1 with Rohrer and Reinbacher scoring the goals. His evaluation of Reinbacher is really heartening. He's bigger, faster and more confident. He feels Reinbacher's offensive potential has been greatly underrated. He was the best player on the ice (not surprising given his draft standing), but he's still only 19, playing more and better than older, more experienced skaters. Reinbacher's defense was outstanding as were his outlet passes. Rohrer was also very good, despite only getting 11 minutes of ice. McCagg felt he was Austria's best forward and should have an increased role going forward. His skating has improved, he battles hard and has a high compete level.
Marinaro and McCagg also talked about a question on a radio show...if you had to keep only 3 guys who are on the Habs right now for the future, who would they be? The radio guest and McCagg both picked the same 3....Suzuki, Slaf and Hutson. There was some debate over whether Hutson should be in that group, or one of Dach, maybe even Reinbacher. Demidov, not being on the team yet, was not part of this question. Interesting debate. You'd want to keep one Dman in that trio and I think Suzuki and Slaf are absolute musts.
They ended this discussion with the thought that in a few years, the Habs are going to be almighty good. I have to agree. If enough of these kids hit their ceilings, there won't be a team that can touch them.
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Post by Willie Dog on Sept 1, 2024 9:01:49 GMT -5
If they hit their ceiling, it'll be an awesome ride
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Post by Cranky on Sept 1, 2024 11:58:51 GMT -5
I don't bother or care about the opinion of almost all the bobbing heads but McCagg is bit different. When he advocated for Sennecke, he brought video after video to back up his point. The regular head bobbers proof is "trust me bro".
I lost all trust in the scouting head bobbers in the early 2000s when what I saw with my own eyes was nowhere close to their spewings. I attended several Hamilton games with the sole purpose of scouting. What my eyes saw was VASTLY different from what head bobbers spouted. Best example was Komisarek and how he is this and that, but in real life, he was beaten one on one like a rented mule, he made bad decisions, his shot was a limp wrister and his physicality consisted of straight arm. He wasn't quick enough or balanced enough to check people. In other words, they either have no idea what makes a hockey player or more likely they never bothered to see him in person.
Another example was the 2018 draft. This and that player were great, but what was their proof? When Bob McKenzie spewed that Kotkaneimi was the next best thing since sliced bread, the rest of the bobbing heads fell in line. Based on what? How he played in a tournament by watching a video?
Worse...the fact that we drafted both Komisarek and Kotkaneimi that high tells me that we either had idiots for scouts or they were very opinionated video watchers.
Getting back to McCagg. He watches a lot of videos, great, but also attends games. Online, at least he backs his opinion with evidence instead of "trust me bro".
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Sept 1, 2024 12:06:30 GMT -5
Hungary were up 3-0 against Austria today, and then cue the big comeback. They tied it up at 19:16 of the third, with Reinbacher getting this nice primary assist. Austria then won it in the shootout. Rohrer on the 4th line had no points and was used in the shootout today.
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Post by Cranky on Sept 1, 2024 12:14:31 GMT -5
Marinaro and McCagg need to let time answer who are the best keepers right now. Suzuki is proven but Slaf only has half a year of proof and Hutson is an unknown. We will see how good he is after a season of meeting very big Neanderthals on a nightly basis.
I also value the defenseman ENTIRE game, not just his offence. Hutson will never be on the same planet as Guhle as defensive defenseman while Guhle may develop a much better offense. To me, Guhle is proven and who I'm picking until X, Rein, Mailman dethrone him. For Hutson to raise above them with a one dimension game, he has to be challenging Makar/Hughes in points.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Sept 1, 2024 12:14:52 GMT -5
Oh my goodness…Rohrer not being selfish enough and Armia-hands cannot convert.
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Post by seventeen on Sept 1, 2024 14:54:19 GMT -5
that second one illustrates how important it is to play with guys at your own hockey IQ level. I've seen that play before and it was converted...Marner to some other Leaf in the NHL. The trailer on the play was playing a rebound and not a pass.
In the earlier Reinbacher clip, he made a great pickup of the pass to him in his zone, off the back skate and onto his stick. One of the less emphasized skills of great players....receiving a pass, especially bad ones. Then he turns the jets on but because he has such a long stride, it doesn't look that impressive (think the opposite of Dave Desharnais, whose feet went at a zillion miles an hour. DD accelerated quickly but then went nowhere), but no one is catching him. So much for the lack of offensive ability.
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Post by seventeen on Sept 1, 2024 22:38:30 GMT -5
McCagg reporting on Reinbacher vs. Slovenia
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Post by Willie Dog on Sept 2, 2024 5:26:28 GMT -5
McCagg reporting on Reinbacher vs. Slovenia
Good stuff, can never have enough competition... Orville will spend most of the season in laval, either him or mailloux will come up when Savard is moved at the TDL. Ideally getting Guhle back on the left side would allow Orville/Mailloux to slot in on the right. Who we have | guhle | mailloux | | Xhekaj | Barron | | Hutson | Savard | | Struble | Reinbacher | | Engstrom | |
I can see engstrom, mailloux, reinbacher starting in Laval Guhle goes to the right side and on the left we have Matheson, Xhekaj, Hutson, Struble Starting D lineup | Matheson | Guhle | | Xhekaj | Barron | | Hutson/Struble | Savard |
I can see going with 7 D... to take pressure off of Hutson, give him the offensive zone starts and Struble the defensive zone starts to start the season or Marty says sink or swim and they go with 6D and Hutson and Struble alternate games, Hutson at home, Struble away. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Sept 2, 2024 10:29:13 GMT -5
I was thinking about the most underrated prospect these days amongst Habs fans. Engström and Kapanen are much better known now and signed their ELCs, so they are on everybody’s radar. Eriksson has been getting some exposure due to his success in the Allsvenskan and hopefully full time in the SHL. The guy almost nobody talks about is Rohrer. After all, he is from Austria and plays professional hockey in Switzerland in the NL. Both are a little off the mainstream viewing capabilities of the casual fan. It was a bit of a shock in his D+2 season when he opted to leave the Ottawa 67s as part of their proposed leadership group for the 23-24 season to head to Switzerland and take his chances playing in a top men’s league. After all, he was born on September 9 and was one of the youngest in his draft class and although he played a fearless game in junior, he was definitely undersized and not that physically developed yet. How will that work against men?
He was always going to be in tough to secure a roster spot, and it became even tougher when Zurich landed some big offseason forwards, including Denis Malgin. The team already had a bit of a Habs connection with two ex-Habs playing key roles for the team: Sven Andrighetto and Yannick Weber. Anyway, don’t count the little buzzbomb out. He earned bottom six ice time and was often praised for his play by head coach Marc Crawford. 19 points in 49 games is not a huge output, but he did not get prime time ice time and always made up for it by huge hustle every shift.
Over the last few seasons, he has competed for his country at the WJC (the previous year as they were relegated for the most recent one), the World Championships and now the Olympic Qualifying tournament. He is still a teenager as he only turns 20 on September 9th, after all. I will keep you posted on any updates I find throughout the season as I will be quite interested to see how he develops in his second year against men.
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Post by seventeen on Sept 2, 2024 14:16:00 GMT -5
I think all our Euro guys except Demidov are a bit underrated, mainly because we're not as exposed to them. If you follow Patrik Bexell on Twitter, he has quite a bit of Habs Euro news. He's part of Habs Eye on The Prize. Rohrer has progressed very nicely. The scouts keep plucking these guys from the late rounds and then they get good development support.
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Post by Tankdriver on Sept 3, 2024 9:21:37 GMT -5
Montreal has had little to no luck drafting players that play in the Euro leagues, especially after their draft year. The only two that come to mind are (Lecky and Romoanov)? I am hoping that Reinbacher and Demidov will start to change that trend.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Sept 3, 2024 13:03:19 GMT -5
The full interview with Thorpe at Giants’ training camp on the weekend. I have his date with the Oil Kings circled in my calendar (and perhaps a game in Victoria too).
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Post by Willie Dog on Sept 3, 2024 13:38:23 GMT -5
The full interview with Thorpe at Giants’ training camp on the weekend. I have his date with the Oil Kings circled in my calendar (and perhaps a game in Victoria too). I posted an article about him in his draft thread from the hockey news... looks like a good pick... big boy |
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Post by Willie Dog on Sept 3, 2024 19:35:10 GMT -5
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Post by Skilly on Sept 4, 2024 15:28:05 GMT -5
Habs no longer own Norlinder's rights. He declined MTL's qualifying offer and Norlinder signed in Sweden with Modo
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Post by IamCanadiens on Sept 4, 2024 19:27:52 GMT -5
Habs no longer own Norlinder's rights. He declined MTL's qualifying offer and Norlinder signed in Sweden with Modo The Habs have have done a great job stocking the prospect cupboard recently to the point where they've reach reaching capacity for some positions. Norlinder fell too far down the pecking order and would've struggled for quality ice time. The Habs are going to continue to lose potential as players see limited opportunities with the Habs. Sometimes they'll walk for nothing like Norlinder but sometimes they'll get something for the Harris' of the world. Regardless it's a better problem than what they used to have and I love the competition. Easy come, easy go. |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Sept 5, 2024 10:09:30 GMT -5
First KHL game of the season and Demidov has a primary assist. He is listed on the third line with Kuzy.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Sept 5, 2024 10:56:00 GMT -5
He ended up playing over 14 minutes, did get an assist, had some effective shifts, and did have this lovely rush.
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Post by Willie Dog on Sept 5, 2024 11:11:29 GMT -5
He ended up playing over 7:00 minutes (not a ton), but did get an assist, had some effective shifts, and did have this lovely rush. I'd take that every day and twice on Saturday nights |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Sept 5, 2024 12:37:41 GMT -5
He ended up playing over 7:00 minutes (not a ton), but did get an assist, had some effective shifts, and did have this lovely rush. I'd take that every day and twice on Saturday nights The source I saw earlier was wrong. He had over 14 minutes of ice time (see stats on last post). |
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Post by seventeen on Sept 5, 2024 13:15:42 GMT -5
On Twitter, Brian Wilde was saying he had only played 7 minutes in the first 2 periods. Either that was wrong or he was on the ice A LOT in the 3rd. Probably the former.
While Demigod's assist wasn't exactly spectacular, I liked the brief screen on the checker after the pass, giving the goal scorer an opening to the net.
Observation: the checking in the KHL is no where near where it should be.
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Sept 5, 2024 13:21:58 GMT -5
On Twitter, Brian Wilde was saying he had only played 7 minutes in the first 2 periods. Either that was wrong or he was on the ice A LOT in the 3rd. Probably the former. While Demigod's assist wasn't exactly spectacular, I liked the brief screen on the checker after the pass, giving the goal scorer an opening to the net. Observation: the checking in the KHL is no where near where it should be. He hardly played in the second. He played a lot in the third. |
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Post by seventeen on Sept 5, 2024 13:53:50 GMT -5
He hardly played in the second. He played a lot in the third. Interesting. Got the coach's trust? |
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Sept 5, 2024 14:14:51 GMT -5
Eriksson snipes one top shelf on the PP in the Champions League opener. He is playing on the top line!
Rohrer and Zurich also playing in the Champions League. The Lions are up late in the third, no points for Rohrer on the fourth line.
Kostenko played top pairing for Khimik in the VHL. No points in their win.
Khanin was listed as the extra forward in Dynamo St Petersburg’s game today in the VHL.
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Post by Willie Dog on Sept 5, 2024 20:23:46 GMT -5
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Post by NWTHabsFan on Sept 5, 2024 20:44:05 GMT -5
An interesting promo video featuring Konyushkov. He is apparently very cultured, but not sure if he actually plays the violin or not. Either way, this has a very Russian vibe to it (in a good way).
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Post by Cranky on Sept 5, 2024 23:27:50 GMT -5
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